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by BeyondFandoms



Series: Unchained Memory [3]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Blood, Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Gore, Murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-11-01 00:58:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10911042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeyondFandoms/pseuds/BeyondFandoms
Summary: Kevin is really pissed. He's pissed at StrexCorp, pissed at Lauren —extremelypissed at Lauren...





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**Author's Note:**

> [ORIGINAL POST](https://lessonsinsilence.tumblr.com/post/160685234267/follow)

Kevin wasn’t always this way. No, there’d been a time when he was carefree, in control, __truly happy__. He was sure of it. Well… __mostly__ sure, anyway.

He took deep breaths and tried to calm himself down. The past few weeks had been absolute _hell_ and he couldn’t understand why his collar wasn’t working properly. Where was it when he needed to be jolted out of those awful, _painful_ memories that kept sailing their way in? Where was it when he was overcome with _crushing_ despair and hopelessness? Where were the volts of electricity, the _picking_ and _sliding_ of hidden barbs of wire into his flesh through _layers of muscle_ when he started feeling… Feeling…

_Unfulfilled?_

_“Unfulfilled?”_ his voice rang back through his own thoughts. _“Never made sense of what you are, who you were, who you will be? Unfulfilled? Ever eaten things that made you think differently? Breathed things? **Unfulfilled**? Feel things? **Felt** things?”_

Kevin’s brain performed the mental equivalent of slamming on brakes. _Feel_ things? Oh, he _felt_ something. A split-second series of images flashing through his head like a polychromatic hurricane: his previous relationship with Daniel, that first StrexCorp sign he ever saw, the bloodied room in which he was tortured, the _Smiling God_ , the mastermind behind it all.

The mastermind. Lauren Mallard. Kevin was filled with rage at even the thought of her _name_ boarding the train of thought he’d been conducting. _She_ was the reason Kevin’s life had twisted off into this _dark, **desolate**_ direction. She may not have created StrexCorp, but she had the company _and_ its _Smiling God_ wrapped around her little finger. She was the one who had destroyed Kevin’s Daniel. She was the one who had destroyed Kevin. _She was the on who had destroyed **everything**._

Kevin had become quite prone to outbursts, to **fits** of intense emotion amidst his usual impassive demeanour, and had learned the signs of an oncoming storm. He could feel it down to his very **core** : the _rage_ , the _bloodlust_ — all aimed at _her_.

And then, he felt nothing at all.

Kevin was like a **machine** now, robotic iin motion yet swift, efficient, and precise. He strode to Lauren’s makeshift office, rapping quickly on the doorframe and entering immediately after.

“I didn’t say you could come in,” Lauren scolded, eyeing Kevin warily.

“What a coincidence! I didn’t _ask your permission_ , either,” Kevin quipped automatically. He didn’t much **care** for her tone at the moment. He could fix that.

Lauren sighs. “What do you want? It’s not like we’ve got any _exciting news_ to cover these days.”

“Good. What I’m here for isn’t really _new_ , anyways.” He steps closer to her, holding eye contact (as best as possible when one’s eyes are solid expanses the colour of **tar** ). “Let’s talk about _Strex_.”

“What about it?” Her tone is nonchalant, but her eyes shift away from his. It’s as if she thinks he isn’t _looking_ for little signs like these, any little signs of **weakness** to exploit later.

“What, indeed…” Kevin mused. Truthfully, he wasn’t sure which channel of anger to alleviate first. “Mmmh… ‘What’ just may be exactly the question…”

“You don’t know where you’re going with this, do you? Your hesitation is almost **palpable** , Kevin. And haven’t you been taught never to hesitate?”

“Tell me how you did it,” Kevin replied sharply, deciding at once to get to the meat of the matter, so to speak.

“Did _what_ , Kevin?” Lauren grinned, entertaining the idea of dragging this on as **long** as possible.

Truly, who _doesn’t_ have a bad idea every now and again?

The rage that had been mounting in Kevin over the course of this conversation began to spill over. He slammed his hands down against Lauren’s desk, leaning forward as he yelled, “You _know_ what! Tell me what you did to Daniel, what you tried to do to me!” He was shaking violently, rapidly losing control.

Lauren simply gave a short, derisive laugh. “Oh, Kevin,” she started condescendingly, “you poor little failed experiment, you.” She reached forward and petted his hair.

It was as if a switch was flipped somewhere inside Kevin. Lauren never even had time to register his arm swinging before she was on the floor. “ _ **Don’t touch me!**_ ” Kevin screamed.

Lauren’s face twisted into a snarl. She pushed herself up from the ground and advanced toward Kevin slowly. “Didn’t anyone programme any **manners** into you?”

“I… am not… **a machine**!” Kevin responded, voice low and dark. He still thrummed with barely-contained rage, but he had _questions_ , questions that _would_ be answered.

“Oh, of course you aren’t. Machines don’t make mistakes.”

“Then how do they explain you?” Kevin quips, a start of a laugh escaping at his own **scathing** sarcasm.

“I’ll chalk that up to your **humanity** , Kevin, and let it slip by. Unlike you, I do not malfunction. I do not burst into these little **fits** like you. I do not let others interfere with my work. I suppose StrexCorp just took a little more time on me (and of course, on Daniel — there’s a reason he was higher up than I) than what they spent on you.”

“What a shame I’ll have to destroy their prized little creation, then,” Kevin remarked carelessly. He moved, once more, with supernatural speed. Lauren barely had time to register his words before she was being held up by her throat, staring into Kevin’s deep, **angry** black eyes. “This is for Daniel.”

Kevin squeezed her throat tightly. There was a moment in which his thumb broke its way through her skin, attempting to force its way through vein and muscle as _warm, **wet blood**_ began to pour out of the new injury.

The **searing** pain brought Lauren back to herself enough to attempt a defense. She kicked out as hard as she could; lucky her, most of Kevin was still _human_ and he crumpled to the ground with a shout. She grabbed his wrists, pinning them to the ground on either side of him. She was sure her mechanics made her stronger than him, so _sure_. She did have a troublesome little habit of underestimating him.

It didn’t take much at all for him to bridge upward and throw her over beneath him. His left arm drew back, fingers closing into a tight fist. Lauren’s right arm, now freed from his grip, shot out and grabbed his forearm. She **pulled** as hard as she could, twisting as she did. Wifh a horrible, _**sickening**_ sound of skin ripping and veins breaking, the forearm came free. Surprised at the relative ease of removal, Lauren dropped the mechanic limb with a loud, metallic _clang_. There were a few beats of tense silence, then Kevin’s voice, quiet and flat:

“You should _not_ have done that.”

The words are followed by a breath, the slightest little **inhale** and the switch is flipped again. The breath ended on a high, hysterical laugh, one that continued on and on and seemingly _endlessly on_ as Kevin quickly, fluidly snapped Lauren’s left arm behind her back, freeing his right hand. He gripped her throat again, **forcing** his thumb back through the hole he’d created earlier, pushing deeper, deeper until he heard a rough _snap_ , until he no longer heard the gasping, gurgling, choking sounds Lauren made as he killed her. Even then, he didn’t stop. He continued, laughing hysterically, quite literally tearing her apart as a dark, insurmountable _glee_ filled him. He’d forgotten just how _good_ it felt to take someone’s life so **forcefully**. He decided he’d never let this feeling slip, knowing he’d need it more than ever now that he truly was alone.

_Alone._ Kevin sat back, blood-covered and shaking, coming down from his sickening high. _So I am all alone again. I am all alone, and I am back at square one._

**Author's Note:**

> It's my birthday but _you're_ the ones getting a present. I'm jealous.


End file.
